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Thursday, August 5, 2010

After reading Rae's posts (here & here) last week, I got to thinking about perceived perfection online. A lot of craft bloggers only blog about what they are good at, which makes sense. If they happen to be good at one crafty thing, chances are they will also be good at another crafty thing and another and so on. However, sometimes that can be downright intimidating!

My friend Anna recently told me: "Have you heard about the survey that shows that women who look at blogs feel terrible about themselves because they feel like they can never live up to what bloggers do? They cannot raise the family and cook beautiful, delicious meals and be thin and make 46 sweaters!"

Folks, I'm here to tell you: I'm bad at something, and that something is plants. See the above photographic evidence - a very dead basil plant next to a very dead mint plant. What? You don't see the mint? Oh, it's that brown stick-like thing coming out of that red pot. Some "plant," eh?

I could blame it on the fact that we live on the first floor (little natural light) in an apartment with no backyard. I could blame it on the "basil-eating fungus" that has supposedly plagued Chicago this summer. But really, I think I just haven't got the knack of growing things yet, and I'm ok with that.

And yes, I did leave this dead plant sitting in my house just so I could take a picture of it.

(What is that green thing in the white pot in the background!? A tiny palm tree purchased at a Florida airport. Classy, I know. I'm better with trees, less watering required.)

I killed two basil plants this summer. I kept forgetting to water them.

My only plant success was my African Violet that seemed to like to be neglected and then drowned when I remembered to water it. I unfortunately forgot to ask my roommate take care of it when I went home to my parents for a month over Christmas break. It's dead too.